City Council will vote today on the controversial plan
to lease Cincinnati’s parking assets to the Port of Greater Cincinnati
Development Authority. The plan would give up some control over the city’s
parking meters and garages to generate revenue to fund downtown
development projects and help balance the deficit for the next two
years. Before the City Council vote, City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr.
will hold a presentation on solving Cincinnati’s long-term structural
deficit problems, which Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan said was a
remaining concern even if the parking plan passed. CityBeat previously covered the parking plan here, the city manager’s and John Cranley’s alternatives here, Councilman Chris Seelbach’s alternative here and the Budget and Finance Committee vote on the plan here.
Hospital groups are telling lawmakers that the Medicaid expansion is “necessary”
to preserve facilities that will face big cuts in the next year. Under the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), hospitals will lose funding from the federal government,
but the cuts were supposed to be made up with the prospect of more
customers. If the state doesn’t expand Medicaid, the hospitals will
still lose funding, and they won’t get many of their potential new customers. As
part of Obamacare, the federal government is carrying the full cost of
the expansion for the first three years. After that, the federal
government’s share is brought down to 95 percent and ultimately phased
down to 90 percent. By some estimates, the Medicaid expansion would save Ohio
money by shifting costs from the state to the federal government and
generate more revenue through increased economic security. Gov. John
Kasich suggested the expansion in his budget proposal, which CityBeat covered here.
Cincinnati and cities all around the nation are facing new federal requirements
to update sewer systems to better handle stormwater runoff, which can
mix with sewage and spill into rivers. Tony Parrott, executive director
of the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD), says his agency has developed
software to prioritize upgrade projects and make them more efficient. CityBeat previously covered some of MSD’s efforts here.
A bill sponsored by Ohio Sen. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, would limit the window
for collecting additional signatures for a state ballot initiative to
10 days if the secretary of state deems the initial petition signatures
short of minimum requirements. Seitz says the bill will eliminate a
loophole that allows politically motivated petitioners to extend and
abuse the state’s petitioning process, and Secretary of State Jon Husted
says the bill “is on the right track.” Opponents are calling the bill
“punitive” and saying it will weaken Ohioans’ rights to take up ballot
initiatives and referendums.
Supporters of Internet sweepstakes parlors are saying that a state ban on the establishments would be unconstitutional
and would potentially face litigation. Luther Liggett, an attorney
representing Internet Sweepstakes Association of Ohio, said a Toledo
appeals court ruling found Internet cafe games are not gambling because
the outcome is predetermined. He also said a ban would violate
constitutional protections against retroactively negating contracts,
which internet cafes hold with employees, real estate owners and
computer vendors.
Greater Cincinnati Walmart stores are installing rooftop solar panels
as part of the retailer’s nationwide green initiative to completely
power all its stores with renewable energy. The arrays on 12 Ohio
Walmart stores will generate enough electricity to power 820 homes
year-round and eliminate carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to the
output of 1,152 cars.
The University of Cincinnati could get $30 million
as a result of the reported settlement with seven schools breaking away
from the Big East to form their own non-football conference.
The average American severely underestimates
how bad wealth inequality is, according to a YouTube video that went
viral over the weekend. If the inequality trend is truly downplayed,
that could have bad repercussions for Ohio: A previous report
from the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found
Ohio’s income gap — the income difference between the rich and poor — is
wide and growing, and low-income and middle-income Ohioans have
actually seen their incomes drop since the 1990s.
How did you fare in the aftermath of the winter storm yesterday? Some southwest Ohio areas were reporting widespread power outages.
Indiana lawmakers are considering changes
to their state’s casinos to make them more competitive with
Cincinnati’s newly opened Horseshoe Casino and other Ohio
establishments. The Indiana Senate already passed a bill that would
allow riverboat casinos to move on shore and racinos to replace
electronic game tables with live dealers. The bill is now going to the
Indiana House for approval.
A gay couple was kicked out of a California mall
for holding hands and kissing. Apparently, the security officer who
kicked the couple out paid very close attention to the make-out session;
in a recording, the officer said that he counted the couple kissing 25
times.
A new study suggested Europa, Jupiter’s moon, could have salt water on its surface, which would be good for potential extraterrestrial life.

Xavier University has reversed its controversial decision
to not pay for employees’ birth control as part of healthcare plans
after realizing that since announcing the end of the coverage July 1,
the school has actually continued to cover birth control costs. CINCINNATI +2

New water infrastructure seeks to be cheaper, more sustainable

As cities rush to solve major problems with water
infrastructure, newer technologies are being touted by city agencies as
cheaper, cleaner solutions. In two different local projects, the
Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSD) and a City
Council task force are looking into green ways to solve the city’s water
needs.
On Wednesday, CityBeat covered some of the benefits and downsides
of green water infrastructure. According to the report reviewed
Wednesday, green water infrastructure is cheaper and does create a boon
of jobs, but it faces some funding and education problems. However, it
was unclear how the green ideas would translate into Cincinnati.Tony Parrott, executive director of MSD, says despite the
challenges, green infrastructure is clearly the cheaper option. The
organization is partnering with local organizations to adopt a series of
new projects — among them, green roofs, rain gardens, wetlands — to meet a new
federal mandate that requires MSD to reduce the amount of sewer overflow
that makes it into local rivers and streams.
“That is a very costly mandate,” he says. “Our belief is
that green infrastructure and sustainable infrastructure will allow us
to achieve a lot of those objectives a lot cheaper than your
conventional deep tunnel systems or other gray type of infrastructure.”
Of course, conventional — or “gray” — infrastructure still
has its place, but adopting a hybrid of green and gray infrastructure
or just green infrastructure in some areas was found to be cheaper in
MSD analyses, according to Parrott.
Plans are already being executed. On top of the smaller
projects that slow the flow of storm water into sewer systems, MSD is
also taking what Parrott calls a “large-scale approach to resurrect or
daylight former streams and creeks that were buried over 150 years ago.”
This approach will rely on the new waterways to redirect storm water so
it doesn’t threaten to flood sewers and cause sewer overflow, Parrott
says.
The programs are being approached in a “holistic way,”
according to Parrott. MSD intends to refine and reiterate on what works
as the programs develop. However, that comes with challenges when
setting goals and asking for funding.
“We think that if you’re going to use a more integrated
approach, it may require us to ask for more time to get some of these
projects done and in the ground and then see how effective they are,”
Parrott says.
If it all plays out, the ongoing maintenance required by
the green approach could be good for the local economy, according to
Parrott: “With the green and sustainable infrastructure, you’re creating
a new class of what we call green jobs for maintenance. The majority of
those jobs are something local folks can do as opposed to the
conventional process.” Additionally, the green jobs also tend to benefit
“disadvantaged communities” more than conventional jobs, according to
Parrott.
The argument is essentially what Jeremy Hays, chief strategist for state and local initiatives at Green For All, told CityBeat
on Wednesday. Since the green jobs require less education and training,
they’re more accessible to “disadvantaged workers,” according to Hays:
“They require some training and some skills, but not four years’ worth
because it’s skills that you can get at a community college or even on
the job.”
While MSD fully encourages the use of rain barrels,
recycling will not be a top priority for MSD’s programs. Instead, that
priority goes to the Rainwater Harvesting Task Force, a City Council
task force intended to find ways to reform the city’s plumbing code to
make harvesting and recycling rainwater a possibility.
Bob Knight, a member of the task force, says there is
already a model in place the city can use. The task force is looking
into adopting the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) in
Cincinnati. The code will “prescriptively tell” architects and engineers
how to design a rainwater harvesting system. In other words, IGCC would
set a standard for the city.Deciding on this code was not without challenges. At
first, the task force wasn’t even sure if it could dictate how rainwater
is harvested and recycled. The first question Knight had to ask was,
“Who has that authority?” What it found is a mix of local agencies —
Greater Cincinnati Water Works, MSD and Cincinnati Department of
Planning — will all have to work together to implement the city’s new
code.
The task force hopes to give its findings to Quality of
Life Committee, which is led by Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls, by the end of
November.